Professor Yutaka Arai

Yutaka Arai is a specialist in international human rights (IHRL) and international humanitarian law (IHL).

Yutaka did his undergraduate study in Law and then obtained his LLM at University of Keio in 1993. During that time, he studied international relations as an exchange student from Keio at Brown University. He then moved to England and studied for his PhD at University of Cambridge (under the supervision of the former Prof James Crawford, and later the judge of the International Court of Justice). For over 25 years, he taught and acted as deputy-director in law at the former Brussels campus of the University of Kent  at Brussels.

Yutaka has been invited to many expert meetings of the UN and other international organisations on issues relating to international human rights law and international humanitarian law. He has also acted as visiting professors at universities around the world, including in Belgium, China, France, Greece, Italy, Japan, and Korea.

Yutaka has obtained several fellowships and grants in the past, including the British Academy Grants and the UK Arts and Humanity Research Council (AHRC). He is a member of the International Law Association. He is acting as among the deputy editors in Japanese Yearbook of International Law and Israel Law Review.

Yutaka has also been acting as an external reviewer for the fellowships and other fundings at UK Arts and Humanity Research Council and the Irish Research Council.

His working languages (the language for research and lectures done) are English, Japanese (mother tongue), French (C1) and German (B2). He is also equipped with basic reading knowledge of Spanish (B1), Chinese and Greek (A1) and elementary reading knowledge of Italian, Korea and Russian.

Yutaka has over sixty research publications. These include two research monographs and dozens of articles and book reviews in internationally reviewed journals (including in American Journal of International Law, Journal of Conflict and Security Law, Israel Law Review, International Review of the Red Cross, Leiden Journal of International Law, Yearbook of European Law), and chapters in edited collections. His first monograph, The Margin of Appreciation Doctrine and the Principle of Proportionality in the Jurisprudence of the ECHR" in (Intersentia/Hart, 2002) has been cited by the Permanent Court of Arbitration. Yutaka’s second monograph, The Law of Occupation - Interplay between International Humanitarian Law and International Human Rights Law (Martinus Nijhoff, 2009), has been cited in several judgments, including by the International Criminal Court and the European Court of Human Rights, Grand Chamber. He has also published non-academic papers in English and Japanese, including a few in Financial Times.

Twelve Main/Representative Publications (by this applicant’s choice under the name of Yutak  ARAI-TAKAHASHI or Yutaka ARAI-YOKOI)

The Margin of Appreciation Doctrine and the Principle of Proportionality in the ECHR, (Intersentia/Hart, 2002), a book, xx+300 pages, ISBN 9050951953).

The Law of Occupation – Continuity and Change of International Humanitarian Law, and its Interaction with International Human Rights Law, (Martinus Nijhoff, 2009) a book, xl +758 pages‘

Administrative Discretion in German Law:  Doctrinal Discourse Revisited’, (2000) 6 European Public Law 69-80, (Kluwer, 2000), ISSN: 1354-3725.

‘”Scrupulous but Dynamic” - The Freedom of Expression and the Principle of Proportionality under European Community Law’, (2005) 24 Yearbook of European Law, pp. 27-80 (Oxford University Press, 2006), ISSN 9780199285372.

'The Principle of Humanity under International Humanitarian Law in the “Is/Ought” Dichotomy – Surreptitious, Capricious but Conscientious Meandering’, (2011) 54 Japanese Yearbook of International Law, pp. 333-364, ISSN 0448-8806

‘The Margin of Appreciation Doctrine: a Theoretical Analysis of Strasbourg's Variable Geometry’, in Andreas Føllesdal, Birgit Peters and Geir Ulfstein (eds), European Court of Human Rights in a National, European and International Context (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2013), pp. 62-105, ISBN:  9781107024441 & 9781139169295. 

‘Preoccupied with Occupation – Critical Examinations of the History of the Law of Occupation’, (2012) 94 International Review of the Red Cross 51-80 (Cambridge Univ. Press).

‘A Battle over Elasticity – Interpreting the Concept of ‘Concrete and Direct Military Advantage Anticipated' under International Humanitarian Law’, in Y. Haeck and B.N. McGonigle (eds.), The Realization of Human Rights:  When Theory Meets Practice – In Honour of Leo Zwaak (Intersentia, 2014), 351-367.

‘Excessive Collateral Civilian Casualties and Military Necessity: Awkward Crossroads in International Humanitarian Law (IHL) between State Responsibility and Individual Criminal Liability’, in Freya Baetens and Christine Chinkin (eds), Sovereignty, Statehood and State Responsibility, (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2015), at pp. 325-339.

‘Law-Making and Judicial Guarantees in the Occupied Territories’ under the Geneva Convention IV Relative to the Protection of Civilian Persons in Time of War’ in, Paola Gaeta, Marco Sassoli and Andrew Clapham (eds), The Geneva Conventions in Context - A Commentary, (Oxford University Press, July 2015), pp.1421-1454.

‘Unearthing the Problematized Terrain of Prolonged Occupation’, (2019) 52(2) Israel Law Review 125-167 (Cambridge Univ. Press)

‘Thresholds in Flux– the Standard for Ascertaining the Requirement of Organization for Armed Groups under International Humanitarian Law’, (2021) 26(1) Journal of Conflict and Security Law, (ISSN: 1467-7954) 79–115 (Oxford Univ. Press). 

For all the Publications Showing 50 of 65 total  publications in the Kent Academic Repository (KAR). View all publications

LLB – International Humanitarian Law;

LLB – International Criminal Law;

LLM – Law of Armed Conflict;

LLM – International Criminal law

LLM - Transnational Criminal Law

Yutaka has successfully supervised ten PhD students under my primary supervision (most of whom have published their theses as monographs):

• Dr. Antonios Stylianou (Cyprus), ‘Humanitarian Intervention in International Law: A New World Order?’, currently a senior lecturer at Univ. of Nicosia, Cyprus, 2004-2008.
• Dr Omer Direk (Kurdistan, Türkiye), formerly an assistant professor at Kocaeli Univ. Law School, Istanbul, Türkiye, (2008-2012– no correction); published as Security Detention in International Territorial Administrations: Kosovo, East Timor, and Iraq (Brill, 2016).
• Dr. Martin Hamilton, ‘Cultural Genocide?’, 2009-2015 (no correction), Senior Analyst at the National Operations Department of the Swedish Police Authority (a former lecturer at the Swedish Defence Univ).
• Dr. John Heieck, “The emerging concept of the duty to protect under international law”, 2012-2016, published as A Duty to Prevent Genocide, (Edward Elgar, 2018).
• Dr. Maite van-Regemorter, the title of the thesis ‘Provisional Release in International Criminal Law’, 2013-2016 (minor corrections); published as The international Criminal Court and the Right to Interim Release, (Bruylant, 2018).
• Dr. Isabel Borges, at University of Oslo, external supervisor,2012-2016; published as: Environmental Change, Forced Displacement and International Law, Routledge, 2018, https://www.amazon.com/Environmental-Change-Forced-Displacement-International/dp/1138560138?tag=uuid10-20 (the 19 best international law books in 2019, https://bookauthority.org/books/new-international-law-books).
• Dr Carina Lamont (currently senior lecture at Swedish Defence Academy) ‘In Search of a Normative Framework, Jus post bellum for Effective, Purposive, and Sustainable Protection of Civilians in United Nations Peace Operations’; 2017-2021; published as:  International Law in the Transition to Peace – Protecting Civilians under Jus Post Bellum (Routledge, 2022):
• Dr. Matthew Wetherill, ‘Judicial Interpretation and Nullum Crimen Sine Lege at the International Criminal Court: An Exercise in Utilizing 'Other Inhumane Acts' under Crimes Against Humanity’, 2016- 2020
• Dr. Hazel Ebenezer, ‘Unsafe in my own home – a socio-legal study of violence against women in India’s private sphere’, (2019-2022).
• Dr. Shavkat Akhmedov, ‘Data protection, privacy and freedom of expression -Tajikistan’s Legislation from Perspectives of the EU Law and the ECHR’, 2019-2024.

Currently supervising the following PhD students under my primary supervision

• Emma Segelke, ‘Protection of Intangible Cultural Property under International Law’ (provisional title) since Oct. 2022.

Yutaka welcomes PhD supervisions in broader areas of international human rights law (including aspects of the protection of natural environment and cultural heritage, and critical theories based on gender and post-colonial perspectives), and international humanitarian law.

Having acted as the reviewer for the UK Arts and Humanity Research Council;

Currently working as a reviewer for the Irish Research Council;